My first try at an Owner's test

Here it is:
White's bootsBY KENORJanuary 20, 2015 TESTER INFORMATION NAME: KenEMAIL: HaleAGE: 65LOCATION: Grass Valley, CaliforniaGENDER: MHEIGHT: 5' 8" (1.73 m)WEIGHT: 160 lb (72.60 kg) For:
Ken Hale65 years oldMaleHeight: 5ft. 8in. or 1.73 metersWeight: 160 lbs. or 72.58 kilosEmail: [email protected] of residence: Grass Valley, CaliforniaDate of this bio: January 20, 2015I started backpacking at ten years of age.  That continued until I was twenty-five, mostly in California, but along the Appalachian Trail, as well.  I went to work at eighteen as a wildland firefighter, a job I did until last year.  There has been a 40 year hiatus in my backpacking, but last year, my wife kicked me in the butt and I started hiking the High Sierra again.  I spent so much of my adult life sleeping on the ground in wilderness during fires that I felt the high country held little allure.  I was wrong. What drew me as a boy and young  man has just as great a hold as it ever did.  I love the high country, the granite, basalt, and rock of almost any variety, especially when miles of  it have been scrapped clean by glaciers that melted thousands of years ago.  I know most of you get this, so enough on me.  I get it again, too.
Thanks for listening.
Ken
 PRODUCT INFORMATION Manufacturer: White's Boots (Owner's Analysis)Year of Manufacture: 2005Manufacturer's Website: Whitesboots.comMSRP: US$320.00Listed Weight: 2 lb. 9oz (948 g) per boot, 5 lb. 2 oz (1896 g) for the pairMeasured Weight: 2 lb. 11oz (957 g)per boot, 5 lb. 6 oz. (1914 g) for the pairOther details:  Firefighter boots, officially named "Smoke Jumper" 10 inch tops.

Test location: Pioneer/Spaulding Lake/Grouse Ridge trails between Nevada City, Ca. and Lake TahoeTerrain:    Conifer forest, glacial rock cliffs, alpine meadowsWeather:    Clear, summer day.  85 degrees F (29.4 C)
   I fought wildland fire in these boots (or their forebears) for more than three decades.  They are great boots for any firefighter.  That is what probably lead me to try them out for long distance hiking.  I was having trouble with my "hiking" shoes.  They were primarily my running shoes, so they had no support, and the sole was very soft.  I had just retired from wildland firefighting, so I I thought of my White's.  You folks have to understand that in wildland firefighting, lace-up boots are a basic of what we do.  If your feet do not work, nothing else will, so I bought the very best lace-ups I could find.  After shopping around for  ten years during my earlier firefighting years, I bought my first pair of White's.  They, or their brethren, occupied my feet for the next 25 years.  The point here is that White's Boots were on my feet for most of my adult life.  My hiking shoes were slowly killing my feet.  I naturally thought of my White "Smoke Jumper" boots as a remedy.  They were heavier boots, but I was tough!  I didn't need light boots, I needed boots that worked!  I had been doing wildfires in extremely steep terrain for years in these boots.  I knew what I needed to continue my trekking in the High Sierra.  I needed to use my White's!
  Well, that's what I thought at the time. While trekking at high elevation and fighting wildfire have some similarities, they have different needs, as I was about to find out.  In wildland firefighting ankle support, foot protection, and the grip of the Vibram soles are everything.  In trekking, weight is the fulcrum of the equation.  While ankle support is important to some, most folks trek with low tops. Foot protection is important, but mainly from rocks and other sharp objects, not from beds of hot coals smouldering at over 1000 degrees F.  Grip is important with both types of footwear.  In any case, I stuck my feet into my White's, laced them up and off I went.  The first leg of my hike was 12 miles long, a distance I thought a good test for using the White's in place of my hiking shoes.  The second leg was to be longer.  The trail started at 4000 ft. and ended at a few hundred feet above 6000, so the hike was primarily uphill.  This is a pretty typical Sierra trail.  Some of it is quite steep; some of it undulates up and down.

  By mile six, my legs were beginning to get fatigued.  The weight on each foot was too great for trekking mile after mile.  My stride shortened mechanically in an instinctive attempt to compensate for the weight.  Each step got closer and closer to the ground.  At a major creek crossing on this trail it is necessary to rock hop to ford the rushing water.  As I attempted this, the heal of my left boot caught on a granite nob sticking out from the top of a boulder.  The muscles of my left leg were in full motion mode but my foot was held in place.  This resulted in a major hamstring tear at the base of my glute and very substantial instant pain.  The long and short is that my legs were too tired to left my foot above the nob.  The weight of the White's was too great, my legs had fatigued over a fairly short period of time, and now I was injured, all because my boots were too heavy.
Summary
  I've been told that every pound on your feet is equal to eight pounds on your back.  I don't know how accurate that ratio is but there is great truth to the basic assumption.  Light footwear is very important in trekking.  White's Smoke Jumper boots are substantially too heavy for use as trekking footwear, in my opinion.
Analysis of White's Smoke Jumper boots for trekking
Support: OutstandingFoot Protection: OutstandingWeight: Very poor for trekking, acceptable for firefightingDurability: Very goodPrice: Expensive at $320.00 pair


Ken Hale 




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